Was the city of New Orleans built on the outwash formed dy the Mississippi?

Answer 1

The city of New Orleans was originally in a bay in the Gulf Coast of what is now Louisiana. As it flooded with the rising waters of the various floods of the Mississippi River, the soil was deposited and built up the land. The ground consisted of a mixture of mud, dirt, and water. When the water was removed by pumps, much of the city sank under sea level.

Updated Anwer or new answer.

"In 1718 Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, a founder of outposts in what are now Biloxi, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama, placed a cross at a point where the Mississippi curved near Lake Pontchartrain to mark the site for a new settlement. I understand at the time the city was built the area was located in Cedar forests with about a foot or two of water and even had alligators all around. Even in the very beginning it had to be at least 2 or 3 feet below sea level, but as the Mississippi River kept depositing silt and the levees got higher the city gradually became lower and lower. You now stand in New Orleans and you will have to look up to see the ships sailing on the Mississippi River. The town has water on every side and is big enough now some of the major waterways actually cut through town which leads to some of the massive flooding possibilities They have the Mississippi River to the West. Next Lake Pontchartrain is to the North and East. Industrial Canal cuts through the city on Eastern side connecting the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway with Lake Pontchartrain The Intercoastal Waterway cuts through on the southern edge and it connects with Lake Borgne at the Rigolets and entrance to Lake Pontchartrain from Lake Borgne. The Gulf Intracoastal continues on which leads into the Mississippi Sound and then to south is the Gulf itself. The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet also forks off the Intracoastal Waterway and up until Katrina was another ship Channel to the Gulf. It has been closed off after Katrina and is no longer used. However instead of closing it off with Gates like they did the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway they dammed it off with rocks. That was a major mistake at least in my opinion because when the Tide is going out it would drain water out of the city faster than all the pumping stations put together. They could close the gates when water was coming in and open them when it was going out. Well they screwed that up. Anyway the Gulf Outlet is on one side of the Ninth Ward with the Industrial Canal to the North and the Miss. River to the West. The Ninth Ward area is probably even lower than most of New Orleans. They got bad advice pushing to close the MRGO instead of having a storm barrier built that could open and close like they did just a few 100 feet away in the Intracoastal Waterway. Heck they could have built that gate a Mile to the West and closed off Water coming in from both and opening it to allow water to drain out of both. That area around the 9th ward is the lowest below sea level except maybe the portions of the city built right near the Industrial Canal running to the Lake from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Industrial Locks which connects all the waterways to the Mississippi River for shipping purposes. The Mobile River never had the extensive levee system the Mississippi River does for the lower 950 miles. That Levee system help funnel the water faster and carried more silt buidling up the River and in turn the levees were also built higher which made NOLA even lower. Also when they built Old River Locks that divereted a lot of the flow of the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya River Basin and instead added it to the Mississippi River to increase the size and strenght of the Mississippi River System down below Angola area to the mouth of the River. In part it helped create the ship Channel from the Mouth of the River (or Head of the Passes) to Baton Rough some 235 miles or so upriver. Captain Jim Turner